(The actual documents and references to the sources on which this book is based form a second volume of the German edition, which has just been published by Georg Bondi, Berlin. These pièces justificatives will no doubt be consulted in the original tongues by serious students of the subject.
In the meantime Professor Kantorowicz has kindly written for the English edition the following note as a guide to the general reader.)
The most important sources for the history of Frederick II are the Regesta imperii, vol. v: Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Philipp, Otto IV, Friedrich II, Heinrich (VII), Conrad IV, Heinrich Raspe, Wilhelm und Richard, 1198–1272, edited by Boehmer, Ficker and Winkelmann (Innsbruck, 1881–1901). Letters and documents have been collected by Huillard-Bréholles in Historia diplomatica Friderici secundi (Paris, 1852–61). Constitutional documents, edicts, etc., relating to the Empire are to be found in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Constitutiones et acta publica imperatorum et regum, Tom. II (1198–1272), ed. L. Weiland (Hanover, 1896). The Letters of Petrus de Vinea were last edited by Iselin (Basle, 1740); there is no more modern edition. Further documents and letters will be found in J. F. Boehmer’s Acta imperii selecta (Innsbruck, 1870); Julius Ficker’s Forschungen zur Reichs- und Rechtsgeschichte Italiens (Innsbruck, 1874); E. Winkelmann’s Acta imperii inedita saeculi XIII (Innsbruck, 1880–85); and also in Italian and German periodicals, especially in Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, published by the Preussische Historische Institut in Rome (Rome, 1898 ff.). Karl Hampe has printed a large number of important letters; the publications in which these have appeared are enumerated in Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven, etc., vol. xx, p. 40.
The authoritative edition of the Emperor’s Sicilian laws is that of C. Carcani: Constitutiones regum regni utriusque Siciliae, mandante Friderico II imperatore (Naples, 1786); the Greek translation and the fragment of the Register of 1239–40 will be found in the same place. The edition by Antonius Cervonius: Constitutionum regni Siciliarum libri III (Naples, 1773) is also useful on account of containing the Glosses. The Laws in chronological order will be found in Huillard-Breholles, op. cit., vol. iv, pp. 1 ff. The courtiers’ letters are in an appendix to Huillard-Breholles: Vie et correspondence de Pierre de la Vigne (Paris, 1865).
The number of chronicles and annals relating to the period of Frederick II is extraordinarily large; an excellent summary of them will be found in the Regesta imperii, vol. v, 9, pp. lxxxvii ff. The important biography of Frederick II by Bishop Mainardinus of Imola has unfortunately perished; it has been as far as possible reconstructed from surviving fragments by F. Gueterbock in Neues Archiv, vol. xxx (1905), pp. 35–83. The most outstanding Italian chroniclers are: Richard of San Germano, edited by A. Gaudenzi in Monumenti storici, serie prima: Cronache (Naples, 1888); the Guelf and Ghibelline Annals of Piacenza in the Monum. Germ. Histor.: Scriptores, vol. xviii, a volume which also contains the important Annales Januenses; the Chronicle of Rolandin of Padua, ibid., vol. xix, and the Chronicle of Fra Salimbene of Parma, ibid., vol. xxxii. The most important German chroniclers are: Burchardi Praepositi Urspergensis Chronicon, ed. Holder Egger and B. v. Simson in Scriptores rerum Germanicarum (Hanover, 1916), and the Chronica regia Coloniensis, ed. G. Waitz, in Scriptores rerum Germanicarum (Hanover, 1880). A further main source is Roger of Wendover, Flores historiarum, ed. Coxe (London, 1841), and Matthew Paris, Historia maior, ed. Luard (London, 1872 ff.). Both of these are Englishmen. The Arabic sources have been edited and translated into Italian by Michele Amari, Bibliotheca arabo-sicula (Turin–Rome, 1880 ff.). The most important of the papal letters have been printed in Monum. Germ. Histor.: Epistolae saeculi XIII e regestis pontificum Romanorum selectae, ed. C. Rodenberg (Berlin, 1883 ff.).
Among secondary authorities Schirrmacher’s Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite (Gottingen, 1859–65) is superseded by E. Winkelmann: Jahrbücher der deutschen Geschichte, Philipp von Schwaben und Otto von Braunschweig, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1873–78), and Kaiser Friedrich II, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1889–97), which, however, only extends to the year 1233. A concise and more recent account is given by Karl Hampe’s Deutsche Kaisergeschichte in der Zeit der Salier und Staufer. Other attempts to give a complete portrait are: Wolfram von den Steinen’s Das Kaisertum Friedrichs II nach den Anschauungen seiner Staatsbriefe (Berlin-Leipzig, 1922); Antonio de Stefano: L’idea imperiale di Federico II (Florence, 1927); further, Otto Yehse: Die amtliche Propaganda in der Staatskunst Kaiser Friedrichs II (Munich, 1929). A number of single questions relating to the history of the Emperor have been handled in smaller monographs in the Heidelberger Abhandlungen zur mittleren und neueren Geschichte (Heidelberg) for the medieval section of which Karl Hampe is the editor. The two following books are indispensable for a study of the culture and intellectual life at the court of Frederick II: Hans Niese’s Zur Geschichte des geistigen Lebens am Hofe Kaiser Friedrichs II, Historische Zeitschrift, vol. 108 (1912), pp. 437 ff., and the supremely excellent researches of Charles Homer Haskins, the bulk of which are collected in his Studies in the History of Medieval Science (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.), 1924.
E. K.